


Camelot, Revisited

by iberiandoctor (jehane)



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Additional Warnings Apply, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, Canon Disabled Character, Charles joins the dark side, Dark!Charles, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multiverse, Paraplegia, Physical Disability, Protective Erik, Worlds Where Love Wins, X-Men: First Class (2011)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-24
Updated: 2016-10-24
Packaged: 2018-08-24 10:49:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8369407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jehane/pseuds/iberiandoctor
Summary: On a beach in Cuba, Erik makes a different choice, and Charles can't say no.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mimm](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mimm/gifts).



Charles Xavier knows there are other universes beyond this one. Worlds in which homo sapiens superior don't exist, in which mutants are benevolent dictators, or god-tyrants who consume their homo sapien parents entirely, or where they themselves are hunted down one by one or in droves. 

He believes, he has to believe, there are worlds where humans and their mutant children live in peace. He hopes this is the future for the world he lives in, and not one where Magneto and he are forever locked in the eternal struggle between dark and light, hunter and hunter, with no end in sight until one of them dies.

There might be worlds where Erik never becomes Magneto; worlds in which he isn't irretrievably damaged by war and man's monstrosity, worlds where the nights they've shared are enough to calm the beast given life the day Erik's mother was killed. The worlds in which Charles' whispered _Please, please_ is enough to stop Erik's murderous rage; his _We're the better men, now's the time to prove it_ makes Erik finally come to his senses. Worlds in which love wins in the end.

And then there are the worlds which their enmity razes to the ground, the streets deserted and black with human and mutant blood.

Charles can sense there's at least one world where, rather than see such unparalleled destruction, where he could not face watching more X-men die, he chooses another path. A world where Magneto says, _Charles, do you subscribe to this insanity, or will you join me?_ , and reaches out his hand, and Charles takes it. 

Is that the future which finally leads to peace, or a world irretrievably broken? Would the future always be built on human bones?

He is lying on a beach. His world has come apart like heated silica. A firestorm of emotions blasts through him — the uniformed troops' far-off terror, the hot flare of Moira's grief, the fear and confusion from their friends and Shaw's old soldiers, his sister's sorrow. Raven is leaving, Hank will stay. It's so difficult to focus past everyone's pain in his mind and the shattering pain in his body. 

Erik falls to his knees in the sand. He wrenches the helmet off his head.

He seizes Charles in his arms, he pulls metal from Charles' spine, and his thoughts descend around Charles with horror and panic and regret, with frantic love. 

The boy who has never known a moment's peace after his family was taken from him; the man who has finally learned to trust in Charles' arms. Who will never be able to get beyond _I've been at the mercy of men just following orders_ — at least, not without Charles' help.

Tears drip from his eyes and fall on Charles' face like the southern monsoon.

Erik says, _I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you._ He says, _We want the same things. I want you by my side._ He says, _Please, Charles, I need you. Don't leave me._

And, rather than, _My friend, we do not_ , Charles says, _I'm here_.

Erik's mind goes white with relief for a moment. Charles can see just how afraid he is that Charles would abandon him, how there would be nothing left for him after that but more darkness, more destruction. 

Then Erik marshalls thoughts that are as bright as day, strong enough to build a kingdom of burnished steel, a kingdom that might withstand all manner of attack.

_I can't live without you._

Charles has never turned his back on someone who needed him, and he doesn't have it within him to start now.

_I know, Erik._

Erik is saying, "I'll protect you. What happened to you was my fault. I'll spend my life making sure this never happens again. I'll always keep you safe."

He looks over at Charles' sister, the other half of Charles' heart.

Raven says, "I'm coming, too." She gets to her knees beside them and she says to Charles: _We want the same things. We can't leave him now. He needs us. He needs_ you. 

They all want humans and mutants to co-exist. Humans and mutants living together in peace. Isn't that dream worth fighting and dying for? 

Raven sends: _If people like Shaw stand in the way, isn't it worth killing for?_

Moira has been hovering on the sidelines of their conversation. She says, "Charles, what's happening? Are you seriously thinking of joining them?"

 _Charles, please_ , thinks Erik, fearfully, and it is such a small thing to touch Moira's mind and let her fall into quiet sleep.

A small thing, but it exhausts him, and energy abruptly starts to drain out of him like water from a vessel so badly cracked it can no longer hold together.

"We have to leave," Raven says, and Erik gathers Charles up into his arms.

"Come with us," Charles says to Hank, to Alex. There's barely enough time to see Hank bow his head in despair, and the world goes dark around him.

 

*

 

He wakes thirsty and aching, in his own bed, with Erik at his side. Erik's face is framed with metal, his mind shielded once more.

Charles feels as if he's been asleep for centuries. The world has been remade around him while he's slept, and he's awakened to a bedroom stripped and remodelled into a makeshift sterile space, to the reality that his lumbar spine is shattered from L-2 to L-4, to the fact that he will never walk or function normally again. There is an IV drip in his arm, a catheter between his thighs, and a bag holding his urine hanging by his bed. He can't feel his legs or his prick. 

Is there a universe in which he rises from his sickbed on his two feet, where he re-learns to walk on a beach without growing weary, where he gets to lift his spouse over the threshold of their new home and christen their marital bed?

Erik looks as if he's spent those centuries sitting at Charles' bedside watching over Charles' sleep. There are lines in his face that were not there before Cuba, gulleys around the mouth that had kissed him with such possessiveness. He reads the flicker of Charles' eyes, and he lifts the helmet from his head again. 

Charles almost wishes he hadn't. Erik's mind is a storm of impotent rage. 

_Your legs ... we'll get the best help. I promise. We'll find a cure._

Charles puts this to one side with some difficulty. _Erik. You need to promise me ... no more coins. No more missiles. We need to find a better way._

Erik rises from the chair. He fetches Charles some water, and helps him to drink. 

Finally, he says, out loud, "I don't regret Shaw, and I'm glad you didn't stop me. But you were right to stop me over the missiles. I was angry. Disarming them should have been sufficient."

Treacherous hope washes over Charles. Erik can be reached, he'll never be irredeemable if he can sit here and admit to Charles that he'd been wrong.

Erik continues, in his mind this time: _I can promise you I'll never engage in senseless violence, in killing for killing's sake. But I was born from and for war, and I will do what I need to to keep our people safe. To keep_ you _safe._

He fits his fingers against Charles' cheek. _Please stay._

Charles takes his hand. _No more killing,_ he sends.

_I will try, Charles, for you. But I won't make promises I can't keep. I hope that will be enough for you._

_I hope_ I'm _enough, like this,_ Charles sends, before he can stop himself, and Erik leans over. His kiss is brutal, his desire a desperate wave, and it makes Charles aware of how much he's needed.

_Always. I'll always want you, you'll always be enough._

That night, Erik gets into his bed, and Charles finds himself holding on tightly, tubes and bag and all.

 

*

 

Charles spends the next month consulting with different specialists. They all tell him the same thing.

With his powers, Erik builds Charles a wheelchair with light metals and especially dextrous wheels. With his hands, Erik builds ramps and walkways, until Charles' family home is fully accessible to him once more.

Over the months Charles becomes agile at navigating the corners and hallways in the chair. He watches the President's Thanksgiving address on the Cuban missile crisis without too much bitterness. 

In bed, they also learn to compensate. Charles lets Erik work him open, learns how to read the sparks of electricity against his numb flesh, sparks that resemble the firing of the synapses which he used to feel. Erik is patient, and the day Charles is finally coaxed to spending under Erik's clever fingers he feels as if he's truly come back to life. 

The Kennedy administration establishes Project Wideawake. It's empowered to exterminate any mutant discovered to be a threat to the world.

In February of 1963, Raven and Erik meet a mutant whose last name is Oswald. In April, Oswald kills a right-wing anti-mutant activist and then goes to ground. 

Erik lays aside his helmet when he tells Charles about Oswald, as if he's concerned Charles will take the news badly. There are white streaks in his hair that had not been there last year, and it's only a matter of time before he goes fully white. 

_It was necessary_ , Erik says; Charles listens for the tell-tale hesitation and it isn't there. Erik's mind-touch and his lips speak ringing truth.

Afterwards Charles lies in the circle of Erik's arms and thinks, _Maybe it was for the best._

They have always dreamed about a peaceful co-existence for homo sapiens and homo sapiens superior. That future still looms ahead of them, clearly within their reach: a shining kingdom on the hill. Within the steel and stone of that kingdom, humans and mutants live together in harmony.

Failing that, is a benevolent dictatorship such an adverse outcome, after all? Perhaps a safe future for their kind will always be built on someone's bones.

**Author's Note:**

> For Mimm: a trick, or a treat, depending on your point of view! _Charles joining Erik on the evil side, either voluntarily or by accident._ Post-XFC timeline taken from [here](http://xmenmovies.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline) and [here](http://www.25moments.com); the opening sequence references that famous Charles/Erik scene in "God Loves, Man Kills".


End file.
